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Pakistan: A Hard Country

Pakistan: A Hard Country

Summary

DAILY TELEGRAPH and INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2012

2011 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST

In the wake of Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons, unpoliceable border areas, shelter of the Afghan Taliban and Bin Laden, and the spread of terrorist attacks by groups based in Pakistan to London, Bombay and New York, there is a clear need to look further than the simple image of a failed state so often portrayed in the media, and to see instead a country of immense complexity and importance.

Lieven's profound and sophisticated analysis paves the way for clearer understanding of this remarkable and highly contradictory country.

Reviews

  • Superb ... Few writers offer the insight and deep knowledge that Lieven has of a country critical for the West but one often caricatured by the media and rarely understood by Western policy makers ... Timely and compelling
    Maleeha Lodhi

About the author

Anatol Lieven

Anatol Lieven is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a Fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. He was previously a professor in the War Studies Department of King's College, London. He worked for twelve years as a British foreign correspondent, reporting from South Asia, the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe for The Times and other publications. His books include Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (1998); America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (second edition 2011); Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World (with John Hulsman) (2006) and Pakistan: A Hard Country (2011, published by Penguin).
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